SARASOTA AMATEUR RADIO ASSOCIATION

Minutes of the April 15,2003 Meeting

President Eddie Martin called us to order at 8:05 p.m. We had 3 visitors: Bill Anderson (WB4TJH),Bill Bruno (KG4QOT) and Roger Jones. All 14 people present introduced themselves by name and call sign.

Minutes were read and approved, noting that the Field Day date will be June 28/29, not June 21/22 as reported in the minutes.

The treasurer had no new items to report.

Field Day was noted and Vivia Martin said she would contact the school and notify the insurance company.

Under the heading of recent radio experiences, Don Vande Polder showed a cable that had been chewed by rodents in his cement block wall. He also passed around information about how to build a portable DF antenna. The address is: <http://home.net~jleggio/projects/rdf/tape_bm.htm>.

Danny Zirpoli had just returned from England, but while he had a rig with him, did not get on the air. The program presented by Hans Nepfel was about Digital AM Broadcasting. Using a slide and sound presentation, he indicated that digital quality stereo is now possible on the AM broadcast band, using all of the

Recent electronic developments such as compression, digitalization, etc. Using the side bands of the carrier, this new service is carried along with the main AM signal. When this technology is introduced to Ham radio, our transmitters will not be obsolete, but will need the addition of a decoder. This very technical subject was made understandable to us amateurs by a professional!

We adjourned to refreshments at 9:15 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Elmer A. Dickson, Secretary